Machine gun ammunition feed belt



June 14, 1949. w. A. SCHAICH 2,472,861

MACHINE GUN AMMUNITION FEED BELT Filed Nov. 50, 1945 2 Shets-Sheet 1 June 14, 1949. w. A. scHAlcH 2,472,861

MACHINE GUN AMMUNITION FEED BELT Filed NOV. 50, 1 945 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 cwto-o 31w Wilbur A. 5:111:31 :11.

Patented June 14, 1949 2,472,861 p y l L I MACHINE GUN AMMUNITION FEED BELT Wilbur A. Scha'ich, Springfield, Mass. Application November 30, 1945'; srislNdi 632,099

- 2 Claims. (once-s5) (Granted'under the act 0% March '3', 1 883:88 amended April 30, 1928; 370 G. 757) I The -invention-described herein may be manufactured and used by or .forthe Government for governmental purposes, without the payment to meof any royalty thereon.

v This invention relates to a cartridge belt for machine guns.

In .the, design o f belt-fed machine guns. the problemof effi ciently and reliablyfeeding a belt of cartridges into the .gunand then extracting each ca rtridge successively from the belt is one dfjthe n1ost,-diflloult ,encountered. This is par ticularly true when the machine gun design requiresthe feeding of the cartridges directly from the belt lnto the path of a reciprocating breech rn' ember.,.-.,

Heretofore, cartridge. belts known in the art have permitted such feeding only when a s0- calledffopen-linlrf belt hasbeenutilized, Such. beltcomprises a. plurality of spaced resilient tines which surroundslightly more than half of the cartridge, and due totheir resilience permit the cartridge to be pushed forwardly or downwardly cyst o ,..t.he. er p o t n s. Obvi usly such belt reuuire'slthe use of relatively high grade metal asl th ef belt material 7 order to provide the necessary resilience to the tines. Suehbeltshad the:following difliculties: First, lack of sufficient flelxibilityfto permit necessary twisting of the belt under adverse feeding conditions, andsecondly,v the elat v ly g pro ab y f ee n jams. dllejo. thefrictional engagement between the tridge and ithe resilient .tines during most of he ceding operation 3 I jlf'he constructionof an achine gun belt from a fle ii r fl ne ic. te e is-yt l o ntsiihose. k l e v h a t. .He io o ev r, such belts comprised a plurality. of. spaced, pockets into which the successive cartridges were inserted, andhence such belt could not be utilized ina machine gun in which thebreech member strips the. cartridge from the belt forwardly to, feed girectly into the chamber. The fieigible fabric belts heretofore constructed therefore, could only be utilizedin machine guns wherein oart e firs c le eerwerdlvr l t f e belt, and then moved transversely into the path of the reciprooating breech member A a I i an o ect olih s in e tor orro i a mmers d.fl ziblafeb lo,etrla iloh l for m i v 'r which. ne .q lrs rss h ees-e ther, in spaced relationship for -Q fi eedin mi rib? s n, ut. a so. Perm ts h er ee l b fes iir l l qi i ri h of the reciprocating breech member bymovernent ofthe o ges substantially transversely viiith respect to the general plane of the belt of cartridges. Accordingly, a flexible fabric belt constructed in accordance with this invention may be utilized in machine "gun actionsf'designedto strip the cartridges put of so-called open links.

A further object of. this invention is to provide an improved cartridge belt for machine guns wherein, after the cartridge has been released from the belt, the belt, assists in forcing the car tridgefinto the path of. the reciprocating breech member! The specificnature of this. invention as well as other objects and advantages thereof will clearly-appear from afldescription of a preferred; embodiment .as shown in the accompanying drawings inwhich:v

Fig. 1 is an isometric view of a cartridge belt. in accordance with. this construction shown partially loaded with cartridges, 1 l

jlg, 21s a schematic sectional view of amachine gun action illustrating the feeding, action. ofjthe, improved cartridge belt. .The action is shown in battery position. V 7 ,..Fig. 3115 a .siderelevational view of the car tridge stop member utilized in Figs. 2 and 4 .i Elg. dis. a View similar to Ffig. 2 but-illustrating an instantaneous conditioner the feedingrcycle,

Fig. 5 is a View similar to Fig. 1 of a modifica ti n fcthisinventi n- In Fig. lrthere is shown a preferred ,em'bodinrentof this lnyention comprising a cartridge belt formed froma long integral strip l which at least partially. surrounds eachsuccessive cartridge l0. I he;strip Iris preferably formed of a flexible, fibrous fabriq,bllt mayrequally well be formed from any flexible plastic or metallic material, Whilethe dimensions of the strip l are relatively immaterial, it will be obvious to those skilled in the art that the strip I should preferably have awidth equal to at least onethird the length of thewcartridgein order to firmly support such artr d V f As heretofore/stated the strip l is shaped to at-leastpartially surround each cartridge. The extent of theperiphery of each cartridge that is surrounded by strip I may be any selected value from greater than one-half of the peripheryto s bstant lrtm c tires e nh rm- E c ls; rili s fi y seollr oswithi .tn wrap ed; around portion Ofjllg strip l by means of frangi; sfil reel w i rercsewe i ros acent. ends of the shaped portions of the strip I In the, preferred embodiment of this invention the. threads gmay be tormedpf very fine wire, prefer; ably of a non-ferrous, corrosion resistant material such as copper. However, it is equally possible to utilize threads formed from common fibrous material or plastics, such as nylon. Such threads are sewn or otherwise suitably secured across the two end portions 3 of that portion of the strip which surrounds each cartridge. The sewing is of course preferably d'orie'prior to insertion oi the cartridges into the cartridge pockets defined by the strip I.

The number of the threads 2 utilized is selected in accordance with the relative tensile strength of the threads with respect to the tensile strength of the strip The essential requirement is that such threads will be sufficiently strong to support the weight of the entire belt of cartridges during feeding of the belt into the machine gun. At the same time the tensile strength of the total threads is selected to be frangible at a tensile force substantially less than the ultimate tensile strength of the strip I. It is particularly desirable, though not essential to the practice of this invention, that the elasticity of the threads 2 be substantially less than that of the strip I.

Alternatively, as illustrated in Fig. 5 a band 5 of frangible material may be utilized in place of the threads 2. This construction has an advantage over the thread construction in that it is certain that the entire band will sever while occasionally not all of the threads snap simultaneously and thus interfere with the movement of the cartridges. The band 5 is preferably formed from heavy paper, textile or plastic material having proper frangibility properties. The band 5 may be sewed to strip I in any desired manner as by threads 6, however the threads 6 should be stronger than the tensile strength of band 5.

Thus assuming the first cartridge is held against movement, upon application of a tensile load to the strip I greater than the tensile strength of the threads 2 or band 5, such threads or band will sever and thus free the first cartridge from the belt for movement in a direction substantially transverse to the general plane of the belt. The strip I, however, will not sever at such load and will be unimpaired so far as feeding the remainder of the cartridge belt into the machine gun.

The novel and desirable features of the cartridge belt constructed in accordance with this invention will become more apparent when described in connection with a machine gun constructed to utilize such belt. The essential portions of the feeding portions of such machine guns are shown schematically in assembled relation in Fig. 2.

Referring to Fig. 2 there is shown a hollow cylindrical receiver 20 having a feeding opening 2| provided in its top portion of sufiicient width to permit a cartridge to be laterally inserted therethrough. Within the cylindrical channel formed by the receiver 20, a substantially cylindrical breech member 22 reciprocates and is arranged to push any cartridge projecting into the receiver 20 through the opening 2! forwardly into the chamber of a barrel (not shown) which is secured to the forward end of receiver 211. A cartridge belt feedway is defined in overlyin relationship to the receiver 28 by spaced sheet metal feedway members 26 and 21. A cartridge stop 28 is secured in depending relation to the upper feedway member 2! at a position overlying one edge of the cartridge opening 2| of the receiver 20. With the cartridge stop 28 in the position shown, the machine gun will round of the belt of cartridges.

feed a belt of cartridges containing the spaced cartridges If) into the machine gun from left to right, as viewed in Figs. 2 and 4. This stop member 28 may be removably secured to the upper feedway member 21 by means of a dovetailed portion 9 cooperating with a similarly shaped slot 36 in the feedway member 21. On the cartridge entering side of stop 28, two spaced transverse projections 32 are provided to engage the areas of the cartridge on each side of the cartridge surrounding strip. The bottom edge 33 of stop 28 holds the belt strip I close to the bottom feedway member 26.

A belt retaining pawl is pivotally mounted in a slot 4| in upper feedway member 21. A torsion spring 42 pivotally biases pawl 40 into the feedway. The mounted end of pawl 40 is provided with a fiat 44 which limits pivotal movement of pawl Gil into the feedway by cooperation with the end of slot GI. The free end of pawl 48 is formed into a plurality of prongs 45 and. shaped so as to bite into that portion of the strip 5 surrounding the foremost cartridge in the belt when such strip portion tends to rotate in a counterclockwise direction, as will be expiained.

On the right hand side of the stop member 28, a feeding sprocket 3i is rotatably mounted. Feeding sprocket 3! is provided with a plurality of teeth which bite into the stripped portion I of the cartridge belt supported on the lower feedway member 26 to impart a feeding movement to the entire belt. Feeding sprocket 3I is uni-directionally rotated by a conventional mechanism (not shown) to impart a left to right transverse movement to the belt of cartridges each time that the gun is fired. It will be understood that, in accordance with conventional machine gun construction, the reciprocating breech member 22 moves rearwardly beyond the extreme rear end of the cartridge I0 and then forwardly into abutting relationship with the end of the barrel (not shown) after each shot is fired, extracting and ejecting the fired case on the rearward movement and loading the next cartridge on the forward movement. The rotation imparted to the feed sprocket M is preferably selected so that, assuming a cartridge to be loaded in the chamber 23, the next cartridge It is in abutting relationship with respect to the stop 28 at the instant the cartridge is freed as illustrated in Fig. During the rearward movement of the breech member 22 following the discharge of the first cartridge, the feeding sprocket 3I rotates and takes up whatever slack may exist in the belt feeding sprocket 3! is then sufficient to break the threads 2 (or band 5) which hold the first cartridge It] in the belt. It will be noted that the projecting portions 32 of stop member 28 engage areas of the cartridge II) on each side of the cartridge surrounding strip I and thus very little clamping action is applied to the belt strip I by the cartridge.

As that portion of the strip surrounding the foremost cartrid e is stressed by feeding sprocket 3|, it tends to rotate in a counterclockwise direction and is thereupon engaged by pawl 40 and further rotation prevented. This action of the pawl 41] is particularly desirable when feeding the last Accordingly, substantially all of the tension imparted by the feeding sprocket 3| is concentrated in the threads 2 (or band 5) adjoining the first cartridge and is not transmitted to the remainder of the belt. It will be apparent that when the threads 2 (or band 5) break, the cartridge will be substantially freed of the belt and can move transversely into position to be engaged by the forward end of the reciprocating breech member 22 and thus be pushed forwardly into the chamber 23. As the strip I moves downwardly and forwardly it readily slips off the prongs 45 of pawl 40.

With a cartridge belt constructed in accordance with this invention, it is not necessary to rely entirely upon gravity to accomplish the feeding of the cartridge into the receiver 20. A positive feed is provided by the portion of the strip which originally surrounded the cartridge III. The driving mechanism for the sprocket 3| is selected to continue the rotation of the sprocket 3| as the breech member 22 starts forwardly. Thus the cartridge III will be urged transversely out of the feedway and into the receiver 20 and the path of the reciprocating breech member 22 by the pressure exerted by the strip I in response to the continued rotation of the feeding sprocket 3|. Feeding sprocket 3| preferably continues to rotate during the entire forward movement of the reciprocating breech member 22 and thus takes up any slack in the strip I and pulls the next cartridge I into abutting relationship with the stop 28, completing the feeding cycle.

It is therefore apparent that a cartridge belt constructed in accordance with this invention may be applied to machine gun actions wherein the reciprocating breech member is designed to pick up a cartridge from the belt and feed it directly into the'ehamber. As has already been tive force on the cartridge in a direction transverse to the general plane and path of movement of the belt to assist the moving of such cartridge into the path of a reciprocatingbreech member. Obviously the cartridge belt of this invention may be used interchangeably with a firearm feeding construction as herein described, namely, where the reciprocating breech member forces the cartridge directly from the belt into the breech or in a firearm wherein the bolt extracts the cartridge from the belt.

I claim:

1. A cartridge belt comprising a single strip of flexible material shaped to provide a plurality of open cartridge receiving pockets, and frangible means bridging said open pockets to yieldingly secure a cartridge in each of said pockets, said means being frangible at a substantially lower tensile force than said flexible strip.

2. A cartridge belt comprising a single strip of flexible material shaped to provide a plurality of open cartridge receiving pockets, and a bandlike member bridging each of said open pockets to yieldingly retain a cartridge in each of said pockets, each of said band-like members being secured to said flexible material and being of readily frangible material.

WILBUR. A. SCHAICH.

REFERENCES CITED The following references are of record in the file of this patent:

UNITED STATES PATENTS Number Name Date 1,140,715 Purcell May 25, 1915 FOREIGN PATENTS Number Country Date 108,481 Great Britain May 2, 1918 542,122 Great Britain Dec. 29, 1941 

